German News Service - GNS - SEEMO Workshop - University Vern Zagreb, 15 October 2026 - Cetvtak
15.10. 2026
Speakers
Daria Grudić
Daria Grudić is a Distribution Manager in the Distribution Europe department at Deutsche Welle. Her main responsibilities include the distribution of DW content in the Benelux countries, along with the distribution of the German News Service project in Europe, with a special emphasis on the Balkan countries. Daria’s academic journey led her to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in Zagreb, Croatia. She worked for 8 years as a journalist and editor across various media platforms in Croatia, spanning from online and radio to magazines. In 2015 she moved to the Netherlands to pursue a Master’s degree in Media Innovation. In 2021, Daria joined the Distribution Europe team at Deutsche Welle and moved to Germany
Jochen Spangenberg
Jochen Spangenberg is a media and communication expert working as Deputy Head of Research and Cooperation Projects at Deutsche Welle. The topical focus of his work over the past decade has been on research dealing with social newsgathering, disinformation analysis and verification of digital content, and relating all this to the news sector and journalism. Jochen also lectures at the Free University Berlin in Media & Communication Studies, is an active supporter of Lie Detectors, an NGO that brings media literacy into classrooms, and serves as vice-chair of the Advisory Council of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), Europe’s primary initiative against disinformation. He is furthermore Advisory Board chair of CEDMO (Central European Digital Media Observatory) and Advisory Board member of GADMO (German-Austrian Digital Media Observatory).
Marija Slijepčević
Marija Slijepčević is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Public Relations and Media Studies at VERN’ University in Zagreb, Croatia, and also teaches at the University of Dubrovnik. She teaches courses in media relations, theories of mass and contemporary media, media literacy and fact-checking, as well as specialized journalism.
Her academic and professional focus lies in media theories, fact-checking, disinformation research, and public relations. She is the editor-in-chief of TurFacto, a fact-checking initiative specialized in tourism, supported by EU projects and networks.
Slijepčević has published extensively on media ecosystems, public relations, and fact-checking practices in Central and South-East Europe, and has presented at numerous international conferences from Indonesia to Spain. She has also worked as a journalist and PR professional, and served as Executive Editor of Contemporary Issues, an international journal for social sciences and humanities.
Ozren Kronja
Ozren Kronja is the Executive Director of HUDI, the Croatian Digital Publishers Association, a lecturer at Algebra Bernays University, and a specialist in market research and analytics with experience in the telecom and media sectors. Since 2022, he has been one of the key figures behind HUDI’s efforts to build a more transparent, measurable,
and sustainable digital media market in Croatia, guiding initiatives that brought publishers, researchers, and industry stakeholders together
around shared standards, audience measurement, and digital advertising intelligence.
Vedran Mornar
Prof. Vedran Mornar, PhD, is the Rector of VERN’ University since 2025 and he is a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in Zagreb, Croatia.
He is the former President and acting member of the Board of the Croatian Academy of Engineering. Also, he is the President of MIPRO
Association, as well as a member of the IEEE Computer Society.
During his career, he has served as Dean of FER, President of the National Council for Higher Education, and Minister of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia. He initiated a comprehensive curriculum reform and contributed to the development of numerous national educational information systems.
He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and, as a
Fulbright scholar, he pursued further academic training at the University of Southern California.